of emeralds against the dark wood. It lighted the Chippendale sideboard, before which Chisholm Allen confronted old Nelson, the butler. A cut-glass decanter of sherry was in one hand; the other wa

ughing im

decanter, eh? Well, you don't, not by a long shot. I do-Chris'mas present from the Duches

f the old-time negro for his white master. "Yo' knows yo' don' want no mo' dat ar. Yo' done had er plenty at dat ole club down

hat do you know about heads? Take your fool hands away,

man. "Yo' go erlong tuh baid. Hit's long p

y. "He's gone to bye-bye long ago. S

tuttered the old man. "Ah heahs

berry's been snoozing this hour! If he does come, you

all-door opened. His father stood on the threshold. He

"with a ceremony which, however filial, is somewhat ill

to the door, hesitated and came back. "Is yo'

further

t, Marse Chilly." This time he went out, closi

no masonic funeral going on in the bungalow, is there? Can't

n was wont to reserve the judicial title for moods of especial mellowness such as to-night's. He noted the flushed face and s

rossed to the wall and laid his hand

just because I like to take a glass now and then and go out with the boys. You drink your mint-julep all right enough. And I'll bet whoever you had

l extended to the wall. "I

at's the use?" he said listlessly, and

hat room-men of tempered habit, of standing and achievement. His own son had contempt for such company. It bored him. He preferred to "go out with the boys" and to come home in the small hours-as he had to-night. So he was thinking as he entered the room above. The

were asleep lon

gesture. "I heard your voices

" he answered heavily

t and mental equipment; but there had been behind it no throb of maidenly impulse, no thrill of the great current that feeds the romance of the world. The one point at which life for her caught and focused had been the son, whose misconduct stood so sharply out against the spotless Allen name. He was her one weakness, her love for him an unreasoning passion that had swayed her from his birth. To her his transgressions showed as venial, his delinquenci

a distinct surprise. Was he

dge's pale face flushed. He took off the eyeshad

ght, Charlotte. Does it matt

almost of entreaty, as though in this trouble that touched them both he

bject upon which she could not bring to bear the tempered reason which otherwise marshalled her even life. It seemed to her now

are so sure you understand Chilly! You-his father-have you ever really known h

ge's pale face. But his voice was emotionless as he said, "Chilly ne

espise the company he keeps. Suppose he has a taste for liquor. He is still a gentleman, I believe. But you, with your solemn r

ever understood him as-you do. I only know that his ways are not my ways. He has had every advantage that education and environment can confer. He is older than I was when I bega

ord had been a live coal laid to her resentment. "Is that the worst

t felt had been frozen by her icy reproach. "There are other things I wish to be able to say of my son. I want him to be

"'And women for honour!'" she

ey had been married twenty-two years, and if in that early period he had discerned any lack in her, he had given her no reproaches. On her part, she had fulfilled what she esteemed her whole duty, and in her own mind stood blameless. And he had had his profession. But in the end starved nature had reasserted itself. There had come to him a passion, swift and terrible while it lasted, to which he had surrendered wholly-till death swept it from him. The gall and wormwood had been sweetened then by the birth, in merciful coincidence with that loss, of his twin children. He had thought the episode b

haunt his present as it had waylaid his past. His hand fumble

lf a pattern, Charlotte-le

ol at a critical moment and old bitterness, that had never been tinctured with the sweetness of charity and forgiveness, had sharpened her tongue. Now his shocked white face smote her with a sense of self-

s," she said wit

experience, if not by precept. S

wered. "I hav

said, turning to the door. "I will take

or for her. "Goo